M. A. Shakoor, in his biography of Vakkom Moulavi, calls Rajagopalachari's administration "authoritarian".
During 1952-54, he was the Minister for Religious endowments and Registration of Madras State(in C. Rajagopalachari's cabinet).
Thorapalli is the birthplace of Indian freedom-fighter and politician, C. Rajagopalachari.
Its contributors include John Woodroffe (Arthur Avalon, the Englishman known for pioneering work in Tantra studies), Mahatma Gandhi, Sarojini Naidu, C. Rajagopalachari (the first Governor General of Independent India), T.L. Vaswani (the founder of Vaswani Mission, Pune), K.M. Munshi (the founder of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan), Dr Karan Singh, H.H.Dalai Lama and Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam.